Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a version of a Private Members' Bill I advanced recently. Unfortunately, the Government did not think it could accept it. It proposes that, from the time a social welfare appeal is made, there be a maximum of 60 working days - 12 working weeks - in which a decision should be made. The information available to me is that in the period from October 2013 to September 2014 there were some 34,000 cases. In other words, in 34,000 cases the decision of the deciding officer was challenged. Some 19,000 or 56% of these cases succeeded, which is very good from the point of view of the appeals office, but it also means that in 56% of cases, the deciding officer had got it wrong initially.

While I accept and appreciate that the length of time for determining an appeal has been reduced, the position still remains, on the latest figures, that the average length of time taken to process case involving an oral hearing is 29.3 weeks, which is over seven months. In a case involving a summary decision, where there is no oral hearing, the average time is 21.8 weeks, which is about five months. There are two points to be made. First, these are average figures and, in some instances, the appeal can take much longer to process. Second, in 56% of cases people effectively have been wronged, in that a wrong decision has been made.

The theory is that if somebody applies for a social welfare payment and he or she is turned down and makes an appeal, he or she is entitled to receive supplementary welfare allowance in the meantime to tide him or her over. In many instances, including in several cases I have come across, supplementary welfare allowance is not granted. This is no small thing. For example, I am dealing with a person who was turned down for receipt of carer's allowance - for what reason I do not know - after an initial delay of six months. We are now into the seventh month and the appeal has not yet been determined. The person in question has no other source of income. One will find that, in many cases, supplementary welfare allowance is not payable and the people concerned have no other source of income for extended periods. They have to rely on the generosity of their families or the charity of their friends, many of whom can ill afford it.

All I am trying to do is to shorten the waiting period. I appreciate and accept that it has been shortened, but we are still talking about a period of 13 months for a person who is a carer. I recently came across a case involving an invalidity pension appeal which took up to 15 months to process. It is a very serious matter for the people concerned that they do not have any compensating income in the meantime and are literally in penury. I do not know whether the Government can accept the amendment today. However, I ask the Minister to look as favourably as possible at introducing some time limit because when people come to us, we have to say the average period of waiting is so long and that that is the length of time the person concerned could be waiting. If there was a cut-off point to which we could point, it would relieve a lot of the anxiety and uncertainty suffered.